Jaren’s dad let him take all the furniture out of his room, so it was nice Jaren didn’t have to buy everything from scratch, although Jaren thought it was so his dad didn’t have any reminders of Jaren lying around.
Kaitlynn and David had been gone for a couple of hours when I began to make dinner. Jaren put on one of the Fast and Furious movies to watch while we ate. I was glad he was finally settling in.
The doorbell rang, and I jumped, spaghetti sauce splashing over the sides of the pot. Kaitlynn and David had already become accustomed to walking in, and neither Jaren nor I expected anybody else.
“Can I help you?” Jaren asked the person at the door.
I came around the kitchen wall to see who Jaren spoke to.
It was him. The man who had been following me. My heart raced at seeing the same trench coat, and the same sharp features that were now casting shadows in Jaren’s porch light. I dropped the glass I’d been holding. It shattered on the tile. Fear punched me in the gut.
“Brooke,” said the man. “My Lady requires that you come with me.” He swept his arm to the side and out toward the walk as if it was already decided I was going with him.
He stood under the porch stoop, looking as menacing as I remembered. I shook my head, which was the only course of action I could take in my terrified state to nullify going with him. A tickle crawled along my scalp, and my mind took on a weightless, floating sensation. My body urged me to go with this man.
“No.” My mouth was dry, so it came out as a rasp. I shook my head, trying to clear the fog and strange urge. When it was clear I wasn’t leaving, the man pushed Jaren aside, marching in after me.
“Hey!” Jaren demanded, grabbing the man by his arm.
The man turned back at Jaren, hissing at him, like a cat but more threatening. Jaren’s eyes widened with fear.
“What the…?” Jaren breathed.
The man grabbed Jaren with one arm and launched him, as if Jaren were a small dog. Jaren landed hard on the end table, smashing it to pieces.
“Uggghh,” Jaren whimpered.
I ran across the room to get to Jaren, but the man stepped in front of me. Face to face, I saw his fangs.
“Whoa!” I froze. I wanted to believe he was some psycho who thought it cool to brandish fake fangs, but he wore them with a confidence a creature could only get from knowing how to use the real ones.
Jaren crept up behind the man, with his pocket knife out. “You need to leave now, or this isn’t going to turn out well for any of us.”
The man turned back at Jaren and cackled at him. “You trying to get yourself killed, boy? I am leaving here with the catalyst,” the man said, pointing at me. “I’m sick of trying to procure her without any casualties. You can either survive it or not. I don’t care anymore.” He spoke with a thick accent that sounded European.
Jaren lunged at him in warning, but the man was fast. He snatched the knife out of Jaren’s hand and threw it, stabbing the wall behind me. My heart pounded in my ears.
Who was this guy?
The man attacked Jaren, grabbing him by the throat and squeezing. With one arm, he lifted Jaren clear from the floor.
A squeak leaked out between Jaren’s lips with what I feared might be his last exhale. Heat scorched my veins.
I grabbed a hold of the knife stuck in the wall and struggled to yank it out. I leaped at the man, swinging the knife in as large of an arc as I could to gain momentum, and sliced it into the side of his throat.
I expected him to release Jaren, drop to his knees, and gurgle to his death.
He dropped Jaren, but instead of falling to his knees, the man turned to me with malice on his face. His intentions for me now were much worse than taking me to his Lady.
He sprung at me with incredible speed.
I followed his movements and dodged him.
He turned around, fangs glinting in the overhead light, and his hands came up with his fingers curling into the likeness of claws. He lunged at me again, catching me on my shoulder with one of his sharp, clawed fingers. Pain burned down the back of my shoulder where the flesh tore.
Adrenaline spiked through me, intensifying the heat and heightening all of my senses. The pain in my shoulder numbed.
I sped toward the fanged man with all of my strength. I ran three steps up the side of the wall to give me a better angle and propelled myself off, lunging through the air toward him. My hands reached out, locking onto the sides of his head. I held on as tight as I could and used my momentum to swing around him.
Crack!
His neck snapped.
He finally drooped to the floor, arms slumped at his sides, fingers relaxed to a less deadly posture.
* * *
I ran to Jaren, needing to know if he was all right. He sat up, shook his head, and stared up at me in awe and confusion.
“How did you do that?” he asked, stunning me out of action mode and into Oh my God! What did I do? mode.
The strength and speed I used should have been impossible. Fear unfurled with the rapid beat of my heart, and my hands shook. I turned to look at the man who I’d killed.
He lay on his side with his head twisted back at me. The menace was gone from his eyes, but the life in them was, too.
“Oh, my God. What do we do?” I verged on hyperventilation. A dead man lay in Jaren’s living room. A dead man who I had killed. “I killed him. What do we do?” I looked at Jaren with fear and hopelessness. My fear must have spurred him into action.
“We have to get out of here. More of those monsters might be coming for you when he doesn’t return with you, or return at all, for that matter.” He started hustling through the house grabbing things and shoving them into the duffel bag he had just unpacked hours ago.
I stood, frozen, staring at the lifeless form that seconds ago had been about to rip my head off. “It was self-defense, wasn’t it? He was trying to take me. Then he almost killed you. I had no choice, right?” I thought out loud, hoping Jaren would tell me I wasn’t a monster.
He didn’t say anything, though. He only ran in and out of the room, grabbing clothes and supplies.
“Why are you packing? We need to call the police. The police will protect us if the man’s friends come for us.”
Jaren set his bag down and looked at me. “And tell them what? That you had superhuman strength? That you were able to give this guy a complete one-eighty degree makeover of his head. They’ll never believe what we just saw, which means they will never be able to properly protect us, either. We have to get out of here. These people can’t find us. Do you understand this?”
“Mm-hmm.” An invisible vise tightened around my throat.
“Call your mom,” Jaren said. He picked up his bag to continue his packing.
I walked to the kitchen on legs that wobbled as I stepped over the shards of glass. I didn’t trust that I could stand much longer so I turned off the stove, grabbed my purse, and sat on the floor next to the sink. I dug my shaking hands into my bag and grabbed my phone. I hung up twice because my quaking fingers called my friend Monica and then my friend Molly before I stabilized them enough to hit “Mom” in my contact list.
“Mom,” I sobbed when she answered. Fear smothered me, and I wondered how she would see me once she knew I had killed a man.
“Brooke? Honey, what’s wrong?”
“Mom,” I cried, “a man came to Jaren’s—” I tried to collect myself, because I was sure she didn’t understand me.
I tried again. “There was a guy who came to Jaren’s saying I needed to go with him. When I didn’t want to, he stormed into Jaren’s house and tried to force me. Jaren tried to protect me and almost got himself killed.” I took a few deep breaths trying to delay what I was about to tell her.
“Are you okay? Did you call the police?”
“Well…he had Jaren by the throat, so I stabbed the guy, but it only ticked him off. Then he came after me, and we fought, and I killed him. Please don’t hate me. I’m so sorry,”
I said, pleading with my mom to not disown me. I needed her right now.
“Slow down. I could never hate you. Now think. Why did he want to take you?”
“I don’t know. He said I had to go with him to some lady. He had fangs. And he was super strong and fast. And when I fought him, I was too.”
“Oh, no. We’ve stayed here too long. You and Jaren need to head straight over to Garwin’s house. Right now.” Terror in my mom’s voice set me on edge even further.
“What about the man in Jaren’s living room? I killed him.”
“Leave him. We’ll take care of it. Don’t call the police or anything. You get over there right now, and I’ll meet you guys as soon as I can.” Images fluttered through my mind of my mom and my uncle Garwin packing up the body in the back of Garwin’s truck to go bury it somewhere no one would ever find it. I shuddered at the thought.
“’Kay. I’m sorry, Mom,” I whispered, still worried she would never look at me the same.
I pulled myself up off the floor, wiped at my eyes, and went to find Jaren. He was in his bedroom. He looked up from zipping his bag. “What did your mom say?”
“She said we have to leave here now and go up to my uncle Garwin’s. She’s meeting us there.”
“Who’s this Uncle Garwin?” Jaren’s forehead creased.
“He’s not really my uncle, but he’s a close family friend, and he’s been there for my mom and me whenever we’ve needed it. My mom said they would take care of the man, so I’m pretty sure you can trust him because we can’t leave a dead body in there for Trish to find, and you and my mom are telling me that we can’t call the cops. So, really, the only option I can think of is to go to Garwin’s.” Anxiety caused me to ramble.
“All right.” Jaren sighed when he realized that was our only real option at the moment.
I gave him the keys and followed him as he booked it through the living room. I took one last look at the man lying dead on the floor. I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t want to look, but the muscles in my neck and eyes had a mind of their own. As soon as I registered the knife in his neck with blood thickening around it, and his head turned in such a way that you knew his neck had been broken, I wished I could have just ran out of there without looking back. The image of the prone, lifeless body seared into the darkest depths of my mind.
* * *
“Turn here,” I said, directing Jaren past Lexington and into the hills where the really rich people lived.
“Wow,” Jaren whispered in awe of the lavish neighborhood.
We reached the end of the street and rolled up to the gates leading to Garwin’s house. “Who is this guy?” Jaren’s dad was rich, but nowhere near as wealthy as Garwin.
“The code’s 4-9-7-7-6-5-8,” I said. Jaren typed it into the keypad.
The screen beeped and flashed “Code not accepted.”
“What? I’ve always had the same code. Buzz him,” I said, fearing the worst. A few seconds later, Garwin answered.
“Yes?” Garwin asked.
“My code isn’t working. Is everything all right in there?”
“Yes, dear. I changed it due to the circumstances. I’m glad to see you’re okay. Who’s that with you?” Garwin had cameras around the gate so he could see I had a stranger with me.
“My boyfriend. Mom said for us to meet her here.”
“She’s already here,” he said and hung up. The gates disengaged to grant us entry.
If Jaren was awed from what he saw through the gates, then he was overcome with what sprawled out before him as we drove up the drive to the house.
A white mansion spread across an endless parcel of well-manicured property. The house’s second story was supported by four large columns that stood in front of the entrance. Intricate details in the moldings surrounded the windows and framed the house, giving the property a regal feel.
Jaren drove the car up to the front door and gawked at the house. I stepped out of the car to go inside because I was scared and didn’t have the patience to wait for him. I could not shake the vision of the dead man lying on the floor, and I wanted this night to be over.
I strode up the stairs, Jaren finally trailing behind me as I walked into the foyer. I turned down the hall, making my way toward the den. My mom and Garwin would be in there.
Jaren lingered behind me to stare at what I’m sure were the chandelier, the marble statue in the foyer, the paintings in the hallway, and everything else his eyes probably feasted upon. He finally composed himself and grabbed my hand, walking beside me with purpose.
When we reached the den, I found my mom and Garwin sitting in the lounge by the fireplace.
My mom looked up before we passed through the double doors. She stood and ran to me. “Honey, are you all right?” she asked, hugging me then checking me over for injuries. I slipped Jaren’s jacket down to reveal my shredded shoulder.
She gasped. “We need to get that cleaned up. We’ll be right back,” she said to Garwin and Jaren.
“Not yet.” I planted my feet. “What did you mean when you said ‘we’d stayed here too long’?” My mom knew something about why the man was after me, and I was going to get it out of her, even if it meant my shoulder might fall off.
“Are you sure you want to talk about this now?” she asked, looking over at Jaren.
“Mom! He just had a monster with fangs try to strangle him to death because he was protecting me. Then he saw me fly in the air only to catch myself on said monster’s head with enough force to torque the guy’s skull around, snapping his neck, and killing him! I think he can hear what the hell is going on.”
“Brooke, don’t talk to your mother like that,” Garwin said, still sitting in his chair and swirling a glass of brandy and ice. He didn’t raise his voice, either. He didn’t have to. His voice held an authority that didn’t need volume to communicate business.
I looked at Garwin, then to my mom with apologetic eyes. “I’m sorry, but we’ve had a really rough night, and I’m a little freaked out.” I shook, on the verge of tears by the end of my apology.
“Oh, Brooke. It’s fine. Sit down, and we’ll talk. Okay?” My mom led me over to the couch she’d been sitting on. Jaren sat on the other side of me, across from Garwin.
“Hi. I’m Jaren,” he said, getting up and offering to shake hands with Garwin.
“I’m sure you already know I’m Garwin,” he said, grasping Jaren’s hand, ice clinking against his glass.
“Let’s start by you telling me everything about your attacker tonight,” my mom suggested.
I had to tell her now. I couldn’t hide my stalker from her any longer, not with him lying dead on Jaren’s floor. I swallowed, afraid of confessing the truth of my prior run-ins with this weird stranger, but I needed to know what was going on.
“Well, I first saw him while hiking with Kaitlynn, and I’m convinced he had a mountain lion try to attack us.”
Garwin’s head tilted to the side. “Try?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I told it to stop, and it…did. It froze. It wanted to attack me, but it couldn’t.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? You could have died, and we could have avoided it if you would’ve told me,” my mom said, agitation thick in her words.
“That is exactly why I didn’t tell you. The man freaked me out, but I didn’t want to believe my life was at stake, and I knew you would flip out about it and not let me go out with Jaren, or worse. You’d make me move again.” I adjusted on the couch to ease the throb in my shoulder. “And I think he only sent the mountain lion after us to test me.”
“What makes you think that?” my mom scolded.
“Well, when I stopped the lion from attacking us, the man had a smirk on his face, full of approval.”
My mom looked at Garwin.
“Yes, this makes things interesting,” he said, then sipped his drink.
“Why?” I asked.
“We’ll get to that. What happened the next time you saw him?”
; “Ugh,” I grunted, frustrated they weren’t telling me anything. I sighed. “I’m pretty sure that I saw him lurking outside of Mary’s dress shop the other night.” I didn’t tell them about Jaren’s pictures. I already felt stupid and guilty that I’d risked Jaren’s life. I never thought the man might try to hurt someone else. I figured if I never went anywhere alone, always used the buddy system, the man wouldn’t be able to touch me.
“And then the next time I saw him was tonight, and I already told you what happened with him,” I said, lowering my head so I wouldn’t see my mom’s disgust with me.
She grabbed my chin and forced me to look her in the eye. To my relief, there was only love and concern.
I felt a little better, but I still wanted answers. “’Kay. Your turn. What’s going on?”
My mom dropped her hands into her lap. She hesitated, but she spoke anyway. “I know this is going to sound insane, but the man who came for you tonight was a vampire. We call them Pijawikas.”
“What?” I laughed.
“I know it sounds unbelievable, but it’s true. He’s a vampire.”
“Well, what on Earth would he want me for? Do I have some extra special blood that makes me tastier to them or something?” This really was crazy.
“Not exactly,” she said. “But your blood is special.”
“Okay…,” I stared at her, waiting for her to tell me this was all a joke, and I would wake up from this nightmare. When she didn’t, I recalled she had the same blood. “Well, what about your blood? Is someone after you, too?”
“My blood’s not special in the same way, so I’m not sure if they’re after me, too, but I don’t think so,” she said, looking over at Garwin for confirmation.
“I’ll have to find out what’s going on, but if they were after your mother, they would have moved in on her, as well,” Garwin said.
“So, what do you mean my blood isn’t special in the same way yours is?” I still felt like nothing was getting answered. I was more confused now than I was when we arrived.
“You’re half Pijawikan, Brooke,” my mom confessed, relaxing the tension in her shoulders that must have weighed heavily on her for ages.
Descended by Blood Page 6
